Preparing Emergency Response Teams for Dealing with Disasters in the Gas Infrastructure

UK legislation requires gas infrastructure providers to have a responsibility for the prevention and planning of major incidents and urban disasters. The Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 (COMAH), place a duty on gas infrastructure providers to develop and maintain emergency response plans. Providers are also required under this legislation to conduct exercises to test plans with emergency response teams. The exercises are used to enhance individual and organisation competency in the management of major incidents and to raise knowledge of partner response team capabilities. Research at Northumbria University is being carried out in collaboration with a UK gas infrastructure provider to develop a virtual tool to simulate role playing exercises to test emergency response plans. This paper introduces this research and the role and contribution of software simulation in managing major incidents.